Cash for Youth in Agric Programme to rise to GH¢60m

Government is to increase budgetary allocation for the Youth In Agriculture programme by 500% raising the amount from GH¢10 million to GH¢60 million next year.
The move is to encourage medium and large scale food production among the youth, especially in areas of comparative advantage, to triple food production within the next three years.
It is also meant to cut down on the country's use of foreign exchange on food imports and make the cedi much stronger.
According to Vice President John Mahama, Ghana currently imports food to the tune of one billion dollars annually, a trend that the government was determined to reverse.
To this end "government is mapping out a strategy to encourage the production of soyabean, maize and other cereals that form the core of staples enjoyed by the citizenry.”
He said the government was also designing an initiative on poultry production, which it planned to roll out soon, to ensure a reduction in the amount of poultry products the country imported.
"Our policy is to encourage import substitution by increasing the production of crops and livestock in areas of comparative advantage, to the country to cut down on foreign exchange rate," he said.
Mahama said government was implementing a farm mechanization concept by providing tractors at affordable rates, to groups and individuals to provide ploughing services to rural farmers at low costs to enhance their production.
He said the government was also carrying through with its interventions to subsidize farm implements, equipment, fertilizers and seedlings, among other things.
The vice president noted that government's interventions in the agricultural sector, coupled with the level of food production going on nationwide, indicated that the country was on course to reducing her food imports drastically within the next three years.
He observed that the youth had not embraced agriculture as a means to
earning a livelihood and urged them to take to farming because it could make them have meaningful living.